Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1022
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Maggie Gyllenhaal works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Maggie Gyllenhaal appears in 20 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Maggie. The Dark Knight is the clearest case: a film rated 9.5 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for documentary, romance, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Lenny Abrahamson, Roland Emmerich, Susanna White and others, Maggie Gyllenhaal helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
The Dark Knight (2008) as Rachel · The Dark Knight (2008) as Rachel · Joker: Put on a Happy Face (2020) as Self
Career snapshot
Ranked #1022 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
20
2000–2020
Career length
20 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.5
The Dark Knight
Average Nutevio score
7.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.0
The Dark Knight
Most frequent director
Christopher Nolan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Christopher Nolan
Most common genre
Drama
13 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.0
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2020s
7.3 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Joker: Put on a Happy Face, Best Summer Ever — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.3
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
2 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Away We Go, Crazy Heart, The Dark Knight.
Most productive era
2000s
15 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.211 films | 6.72 films | — |
| Action | 7.74 films | 6.51 film | — |
| Thriller | 7.04 films | 6.51 film | — |
| Comedy | 6.88 films | 6.52 films | 6.71 film |
| Crime | 7.75 films | — | — |
| Romance | 6.96 films | — | 6.71 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Raven.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2008The Dark Knight
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2020Best Summer Ever
The current state of the argument, as TV Reporter.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
20 of 20 films
as Rachel
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Rachel
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Elizabeth Darko
Directed by Richard Kelly
as Ana Pascal
Directed by Marc Forster
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 25 titles · 30 total credits · active 1996–2026
The Bride!
2026 · Director · Writer · Producer
Flesh Impact
2026 · Director
The Lost Daughter
2021 · Director · Writer · Producer
Joker: Put on a Happy Face
2020 · Self
Best Summer Ever
2020 · TV Reporter · Executive Producer
How To with John Wilson
2020 · TV · Self
Frank
2014 · Clara
The Honourable Woman
2014 · TV · Nessa Stein
White House Down
2013 · Finnerty
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
2010 · Isabel Green
Away We Go
2009 · LN
Crazy Heart
2009 · Jean Craddock
The Dark Knight
2008 · Rachel
World Trade Center
2006 · Allison Jimeno
Monster House
2006 · Zee (voice)
Paris Je T'aime
2006 · Liz (Quartier des Enfants Rouges)
Stranger Than Fiction
2006 · Ana Pascal
Criminal
2004 · Valerie
Mona Lisa Smile
2003 · Giselle Levy
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
2002 · Debbie
Adaptation.
2002 · Caroline Cunningham
Donnie Darko
2001 · Elizabeth Darko
Riding in Cars with Boys
2001 · Amelia
Cecil B. Demented
2000 · Raven
The defining work
#1
Rachel
The Dark Knight (2008)
Performance score9.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Rachel gives Maggie Gyllenhaal a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Rachel
The Dark Knight (2008)
Performance score8.7
The Dark Knight asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rachel is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Elizabeth Darko
Donnie Darko (2001)
Performance score7.9
Donnie Darko asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Elizabeth Darko is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Self
Joker: Put on a Happy Face (2020)
Performance score7.8
Joker: Put on a Happy Face asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Rachel
Start here. The Dark Knight is the clearest statement of what Maggie Gyllenhaal does — accessible, 152 minutes, and rated 9.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Maggie at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Donnie Darko (2001)
Keeps the drama register of The Dark Knight but asks for a colder reading of it.
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Keeps the fantasy register of Donnie Darko but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Dark Knight (2008)
A deliberate change of key after Stranger Than Fiction — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Joker: Put on a Happy Face (2020)
A deliberate change of key after The Dark Knight — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably The Dark Knight
John Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably Cecil B. Demented
Penny Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Riding in Cars with Boys
Richard Kelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Donnie Darko
Spike Jonze
Director
1 film together
Notably Adaptation.
George Clooney
Director
1 film together
Notably Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably Mona Lisa Smile
Gregory Jacobs
Director
1 film together
Notably Criminal
Marc Forster
Director
1 film together
Notably Stranger Than Fiction
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably Paris Je T'aime
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably World Trade Center
Scott Cooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Crazy Heart
Sam Mendes
Director
1 film together
Notably Away We Go
Susanna White
Director
1 film together
Notably Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably White House Down
Lenny Abrahamson
Director
1 film together
Notably Frank
Michael Caine
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Cillian Murphy
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Morgan Freeman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Christian Bale
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Aaron Eckhart
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Gary Oldman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Monique Gabriela Curnen
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Ron Dean
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Chin Han
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Nestor Carbonell
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Eric Roberts
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 9.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Dark KnightRichard Kelly
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Donnie DarkoMarc Forster
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stranger Than FictionSpike Jonze
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adaptation.Scott Cooper
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Crazy HeartMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mona Lisa SmileLenny Abrahamson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FrankJoel Coen
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Paris Je T'aimePenny Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Riding in Cars with BoysSam Mendes
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Away We GoGeorge Clooney
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Confessions of a Dangerous MindRoland Emmerich
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
White House DownJohn Waters
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cecil B. DementedSusanna White
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nanny McPhee and the Big BangOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
World Trade CenterGregory Jacobs
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CriminalSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 2009
The Dark Knight
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Dark Knight
as Rachel
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Stranger Than Fiction
as Ana Pascal
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Dark Knight
as Rachel
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Riding in Cars with Boys
as Amelia
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Dark Knight
as Rachel
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Maggie Gyllenhaal has known it for a long time.”
“Why so serious?”
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.4 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #77 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.5 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Action, Crime, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Drama, Screen presence, Charisma | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2008–2008 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Rachel — The Dark Knight | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Dark Knight | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Michael Caine · Cillian Murphy
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
20 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Editor's Icon
Awarded
Named by our desk for a body of work we return to when we need to explain what screen acting is for.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
13 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
The Dark Knight
as Rachel
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Dark Knight
as Rachel
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Crazy Heart
as Jean Craddock
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Donnie Darko
as Elizabeth Darko
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Dark Knight
as Rachel
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Dark Knight
as Rachel
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
as Debbie
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Dark Knight
as Rachel
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 6 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Action Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #1
Read the collectiondirector
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
Features The Dark Knight at #2
Read the collectiontheme
Best Heist Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Best Action Movies
Features The Dark Knight
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
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Cillian Murphy
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
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David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
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Community
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